So I recently finished my 3 years at university and I did not really enjoy it much.

Anyways, I have always been amazed and puzzled as to the mentality and mindsets of students considering an "alternative" option to getting coursework done. It just never appealed to me. They pay someone up to £400 and get away with it somehow - yet someone like me does a lot of late nights, get stressed and worn out, and perserves through AND in the end - the cheating student and I both get a FIRST!

It is beyond me. Do universities not check effectively or is the system easy to cheat? I can't believe I will have to see these cheats at my graduation in June...

Even at the place where I was doing my summer job (a cafe), I had some blokes trying to advertise a business. When I questioned them and looked at their promotional material - they wanted to advertise a writing service for university assignments. I automatically told them to speak to my manager, but they claimed what they were doing was legal. Was like "like right, mate - I believe you"

If it's not flagged by a plagiarism checker, it's pretty difficult to spot essays produced by someone other than the student. Anonymous marking is designed to reduce potential bias, but also makes it impossible to identify work which is written in a style which the student wouldn't normally use. Even with suspicions strong enough to flag to an academic board, proving that an essay originated from someone other than the student is near impossible.

Many unis - mine included - would be very glad to hear ideas. Their response so far is to move away from traditional essay assessments, although some do remain. There are more presentations, assessed seminars, academic posters, in-class short format tests etc. Whilst group work has its faults, that is also more difficult to buy in, especially if participants have to present their research as a group and answer questions on it.

TBH I would report them and hope the uni investigates, they're only have to ask a few questions on the essay or ask for some prep notes or compared to previous writing style etc to see it wasn't their work

perhaps not the nicest thing to do but they're essentially devaluing your degree by getting the same thing with no work so I would just think screw them